Putin Has Got It Right: Sberbank CEO

President Putin, left, meeting Sberbank's chief excutive German Gref in October

German Gref, the chief executive of Russian bank Sberbank, told CNBC that Russian President Vladimir Putin's promise to invest in Russia's growth and infrastructure at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday was reassuring and timely.

"This speech is very important and now is the right moment because the Russian economy is going down to 1.6 percent (gross domestic product) from 4.6 percent one year ago and now our economy needs new stimulus for economic growth," Gref told CNBC at SPIEF.

In a keynote speech to an audience of delegates at the annual St Petersburg event, Putin said he would oversee a multi-billion dollar investment program in Russia's infrastructure and would improve Russia's investment environment to improve the country's image and economy.

"The things that Putin called for today including improving the quality of the governmental and governance management are very, very important. I think this is the key issue why the economy is slowing down," Gref said.

The chief executive of Russia's largest bank by assets added that the macro-economic situation in Russia was "pretty good," despite the slowdown.